//------------------------------//
// Chapter 15 
// Story: Second Contact 
// by SpartanD014 
//------------------------------//

CHAPTER 15


Captain Andrew Del Rio of the UNSC Infinity walked down the long, stark hallways of the UNSC High Command on Earth. Walking next to him was his second-in-command, Commander Thomas Lasky. They had both been called to the massive complex for an urgent meeting with Admiral Hood, for reasons that “they would be made aware of when they arrived”. Del Rio had never liked operating in the dark, and for that reason, he was not happy to be here. Del Rio spared a glance at his executive officer, and, as he expected, he seemed to be fairly indifferent. While Lasky would sometimes hesitate at an oddly given order, he always made sure to respect the chain of command. Finally they reached the end of the hallway, and exited into the room beyond. As was the theme with the rest of the base, it was fairly bland. The walls were a simple gray color, and occasionally a propaganda poster for the UNSC was hung on one. There were two chairs set against one of the walls, with a small table in front of them. Opposite the chairs was a large wooden door, with a marine stationed next to it. Above the door was a sign that read “ADMIRAL TERRENCE HOOD”. Del Rio and Lasky stepped up to the door, and the marine acknowledged their presence. He took a key out of his pocket, unlocked the door, and pushed it open for them. Del Rio quickly walked inside, while Lasky offered a polite nod to the marine. The door was closed behind them, sealing them into the large office room. Sitting in the middle of the room was a large desk with a computer terminal set into it. There was a large leather chair behind it, and two smaller chairs across from it. Several bookshelves lined the room, leading up to a window on the opposite side. Standing in front of this window was the well-respected Fleet Admiral, Lord Terrence Hood. He noticed the two officers enter, and turned around to regard them. Del Rio and Lasky each saluted, and stood at attention. Admiral Hood smiled and sat down at his desk, motioning at the two officers to do the same.

“At ease,” he said. “Please, sit.” Del Rio and Lasky took their seats, then looked to the Admiral.

“I’m sure you’re both wondering why you were asked here, so I’ll get right to it,” Hood began. “But first, you are to both solemnly swear that nothing you hear today will leave this room. Understood?” 

“Yes, sir,” the two officers answered at the same time.

“Good,” Hood continued. “Now let’s begin…” At that, Hood pulled out a small tablet, and began to type on it.

“One week ago, an ONI exploration team came across this distress signal,” the Admiral pressed a button on the tablet, and an audio recording began to play.

“Mayday, mayday, mayday! This is UNSC FFG-818, Lightning, requesting immediate recovery and assistance. This is Adam, Spartan D-014, sole survivor of the crash. Attached to this message is a data packet with all necessary information. Please render assistance. Spartan D-014, over.” As the recording ended, Hood pressed a button, pausing it.

“I heard about the disappearance of Lightning,” Del Rio said. “But what does the reappearance have to do with us?”

“That’s not all that we got, Captain,” Admiral Hood replied. “As Spartan D-014 said, he uploaded a data packet to the signal. Take a look.” Hood passed the tablet across the desk to the two officers. On it were multiple files, so Del Rio pressed to open the very first one. It was nothing out of the ordinary, just some sensor data from Lightning before the crash. Del Rio scrolled to the next file, which was a picture of an expansive forest. Once again, nothing out of the ordinary. But the third file was where things began to get strange. It was another picture, but this one was of a small town. It was nothing special, it appeared to be similar to the middle-ages architecture of Earth. But Del Rio thought he saw the faint outlines of several horses… He scrolled to the next file, which was a short video. It appeared to be from the helmet cam of the Spartan, and he was looking into the forest from the second image at night. The Spartan then switched his HUD to VISR mode, and immediately a strange shape was outlined. It appeared to have the anatomy of a horse, but something was off… Then it clicked: the horse had wings and a horn. Del Rio, beginning to grow confused, scrolled on to the next file, and was immediately taken aback. Standing in the image were several of the horse-like creatures, all of them surrounding a crashed pelican dropship. Upon closer inspection, it looked like some of them were working on it. Del Rio, now not knowing what to think, swiped to the next file, this one being an audio recording. He pressed “play”, and a man’s voice filled the room. 

“Alright,” he said. “So, is there anything you want to say to the UNSC?” 

“Hi, humans!” said a loud, feminine voice. “My name is Twilight Sparkle! Delta crashed here a few days ago, and we’re helping fix his ship! We hope to meet you soon!” At this, Andrew simply looked up in shock. He was usually an emotionless man, but this had left him in utter surprise. He looked to his XO, who seemed to have the same reaction. Hood reached over the desk and took the tablet back.

“They’re called ‘ponies’,” he said. “Included in the data packet were several logs submitted by Spartan-D014. They cover him first arriving on this world, all the way to him establishing early friendships with the creatures…” 

“So…” Del Rio began. “What you’re saying, is…”

“That we’ve made second contact, yes,” Hood finished.

“My god…” Lasky said quietly. He then looked up to the admiral. “What do you need of us, sir?” 

“Well, Infinity is a multi-purpose vessel,” Hood explained. “Therefore, I’m sending her on a mission of diplomacy. It is critical that we make peaceful contact with these beings, and do everything in our power to establish a working alliance. Understood?” Del Rio gulped, running through the situation in his head. 

“When… would we leave, sir?” he finally asked.

“Later today,” the admiral replied. “I’ve already gathered a team of our best diplomats. Also, how you inform your crew is up to your discretion. Once you arrive, you are to stay in geosynchronous orbit above the country of Equestria. You will launch one of your frigates to land on the surface, and dispatch the diplomacy party. Good luck.” Del Rio and Lasky then stood up, saluted, and spun around, heading for the exit. They opened the door, and stepped back out into the small waiting room. Immediately, Del Rio put his face into his hands, and sighed. He then looked to Lasky.

“Get to Infinity,” he commanded. “Inform the crew. I’ll be aboard shortly.”

“Aye sir,” Lasky replied, and he walked out of the room.




Adam quickly navigated the pelican around the city of Canterlot, not bothering with his usual caution of not being spotted. Time was of the essence, and he had to inform the princesses of the imminent threat. He flew the dropship over the palace gardens, and set down in his usual location. Quickly, he ripped off his harness and stalked out of the pelican. The guards that he had provided transport for were not far behind, and all of them wore expressions of worry. Adam pushed the large doors open, startling the two guards standing on the other side of them. The Spartan stopped in front of one of them, and looked down at him.

“Take me to the princesses,” he commanded. The guard gulped nervously and nodded, then turned and began walking down the hallway. Adam and the other guards followed behind, and they finally stopped at another large set of doors. The guard pushed it open, revealing a large room that appeared to serve the purpose of relaxation. Celestia, Luna, and Twilight sat on couches reading, Rainbow Dash and Applejack were hoof-wrestling, Fluttershy was entertaining some small animals in the corner, Rarity was drawing designs on a piece of parchment, and Pinkie Pie was eating a copious amount of cupcakes. They all looked up from their respective tasks as they heard the door open, and all shared the same look of surprise when they noticed Adam. Celestia and Luna stood up and walked over to the door, their brows creased in worry.

“Adam,” Celestia began. “We were not expecting you back so soon. What happened? And who are these guards with you?” Adam sighed and prepared his explanation.

“They’re… They’re soldiers from the ruins,” he explained. “They were attacked by 401 Lamenting Chorus and his sentinels.” All of the ponies’ eyes widened in shock, and Celestia looked to the guards behind the human. 

“Come inside, then,” Celestia said. “Explain everything.” Adam walked forward and the door closed behind him. All of the ponies had gravitated towards the center of the room, where they sat down to listen to Adam. He sighed once more, then began.

“As you know,” Adam started. “I went back so that it could fulfill its end of the bargain. I went back to go home. But it seemed shocked at the prospect of getting rid of me. Apparently, I hadn’t yet ‘outlived my usefulness’. Listen…” At this, the ponies all leaned in.

“It’s learned how you are able to use magic. And it sees this as a threat to the Forerunners, and you all must be destroyed because of it…”

“But I thought the Forerunners went extinct a hundred thousand years ago?” Twilight said. “Doesn’t it know?”

“Apparently not,” Adam said. “I tried to tell it, but it wouldn’t listen. And I think I know the reason why.

“As you know, we have machines that we call ‘artificial intelligences’. They are incredibly smart, and show all the characteristics of being fully sentient. Unfortunately, this is ultimately their undoing. After about seven years, they begin to enter a process that we call ‘rampancy’, which is characterized by delusions of godlike abilities, and the want to destroy all mentally inferior beings. Eventually, they literally think themselves to death…” Many of the ponies seemed shocked by this, and several covered their mouths with their hooves.

“I believe that 401 Lamenting Chorus may be in one of the stages of rampancy. It is for this reason that it is not accepting the truth of his creator’s fates, and why it has decided that the only available option is to kill you off.” Luna looked to Adam, a look of worry in her blue eyes.

“What can we do, Adam?” she asked. “How much of a threat are these ‘sentinels’?” 

“I’ve never fought sentinels in prolonged battle before,” Adam admitted. “The first time I ever even had a small amount of combat with them was today. But they are very powerful, and very difficult to kill. Your basic weapons, like swords and spears, do nothing against them. Magic does little, but it shows potential.” Luna nodded.

“And you?” Celestia asked.

“My weapons should be able to take them out,” he replied. Adam then sighed.

“Look… I’m sorry,” he told them. “It’s my fault you’re all in this mess right now. If I’d have just stayed here, that monitor wouldn’t be after you…” Luna stepped forward and placed a hoof on the Spartan’s shoulder. 

“You could not have known,” she said, smiling. “And you are going to help us through this. For that, we are thankful.” Adam nodded, and Celestia looked around the room.

“We should go to the planning room,” the princess said. “We can talk more there.” The other ponies nodded in agreement, turned around, and walked out of the room.




UNSC Infinity
INF-101
CURRENT LOCATION: SLIPSPACE
TIME: 1341 HOURS

Commander Thomas Lasky walked down the long white hallways of the UNSC Infinity, on his way to the bridge to meet up with Captain Del Rio. They had dropped into slipspace two hours ago on their way to Equis, and with a Forerunner slipspace drive, they would arrive in only 34 more hours. Finally he reached the thick bulkhead door, and tapped his access code into the panel on the side. The door slid open, revealing the massive bridge of the cruiser. Unlike most UNSC bridges, Infinity had a massive one, holding dozens of crew members and technicians. In the center of the large command room was a holotable, with the hologram of a planet on it. Standing next to the table was Captain Del Rio, his face clearly showing his feelings about the situation. His brow was furrowed and his eyebrows were close together. His eyes were closed, indicating to Lasky that he was deep in concentration. As Lasky had predicted, the Captain was very skeptical about this mission. Even with the large amount of intel provided by Spartan D-014, it was still not a run-of-the-mill operation. They would be initiating second contact with the first race of peaceful aliens that they had found. With any luck, it would go off without a hitch.

Lasky stepped up next to the Captain at the holotable, and looked at the hologram of the planet, which he recognized as Equis. Several days prior, an ONI prowler had sent a slipspace probe to investigate, and it had captured several images, as well as collected a large amount of data on the system. Civilization was hard to locate on the planet, due to the ponies being a much more primitive race. However, it was occasionally possible to identify points of light coming from settlements. On the hologram in front of them, several points of light had been highlighted, and labelled as different cities based on the information provided by the Spartan. The capitol was one called “Canterlot”, which would be the most likely place to find the Spartan, and their leadership. Next to the capitol was a large plain, plenty large enough for one of Infinity’s Strident-Class Heavy Frigates. The Strident’s were not large vessels, and one could easily land with room to spare. From there, they would take several pelicans to the capitol, and begin diplomatic talks with the pony leadership. Lasky looked at Captain Del Rio, who was still in his trancelike state of concentration.

“Do you think we’re ready?” Lasky asked. The Captain snapped out of his reverie, and looked to the executive officer.

“Yes, I do,” Del Rio replied. “We have a fine crew here, and the best diplomats in the UNSC at our disposal. No, I think this is going to be a very simple mission…” 




Adam regarded the map of Equestria that lay on the table before him, looking for tactical opportunities that could be used to their advantage. An hour after he and the ponies had migrated to the planning room, the princesses had received word that the griffons were mobilizing again, though this time on a much larger scale. They had no evidence that pointed to Adam working with Equestria, so they couldn’t be attacking them based on his assaults on their ruins. Therefore, Adam deduced that when 401 Lamenting Chorus had said he would “find somebody else to cooperate”, he had meant the griffons. And while Adam did not consider them to be much of a threat, Princess Celestia did. They had a much larger military, and were overall better warriors than her ponies. Therefore, Adam had offered to supply them with basic training that could help them fight off the large creatures. 

She had graciously accepted, and he would be meeting up with the pony trainers the next day. But for now, he needed to continue helping her to plan out the defense of the nation. The few frontier settlements closest to the Gryphonia border were being evacuated, and their populations were replaced by a garrison of guards. She had also granted Adam permission to briefly leave again for Lightning, to resupply his ammunition and retrieve some more weapons. But for now, Adam continued to scrutinize the map. At one point, about a mile from the border, there was a natural formation in the rocks next to a road that would be perfect for an ambush. Adam pointed to it.

“What road is that?” he asked.

“That road was used as a trade route when we were on better terms with the griffons,” Celestia explained. “We’ve since instructed all traders not to use it.”

“Trade route… that means it’s large enough to support heavy cargo?” Adam asked. Celestia nodded. “Then it can also be used to transport war machines…” Celestia and Luna’s eyes widened at this as they made the realization.

“I’d recommend setting up an ambush by these rocks,” said the Spartan. “If the ambush is successful, the soldiers can then block off the road and slow down the progress of transporting anything else.” Celestia nodded.

“It shall be done,” she said. Adam stepped away from the map, and closed his eyes. When they reopened, Luna was standing in front of him.

“Adam, you should get some rest,” she said, concerned. “You have been very busy lately, and it could do you some good.” Adam was about to refuse, when he realized she was right. He had been awake for an entire week during his assault on the griffon-occupied ruins, and the only time he hadn’t been conscious was due to an injury. He didn’t like to admit it, but he was exhausted. So he nodded in agreement, and began to walk to the door of the planning room.

“Notify me if anything happens,” he said briefly before exiting the room.




Princess Luna watched the large human exit the room, feeling quite sorry for him. He had been promised the opportunity to return home, but it was taken from him, and replaced with just another problem. She wandered back over to the map, and looked at the various markings that Adam had made on it. There were multiple notes of good tactical opportunities, as well as several drawings of engagement or ambush plans. She picked up the map with her magic, and rolled it up, storing it on another table until they could make use of it. Luna then sat down, and stretched her wings. She heard her sister yawn, and looked over to her.

“Sister, you should rest as well,” Luna said, smiling. “I shall take charge for the night.” Celestia yawned again, but nodded.

“Very well,” she replied. “But, as Adam said, notify me if anything happens.” Luna nodded, and saw her sister to the door. 

“Good night, Tia,” the night princess said. Celestia smiled, yawned once more, and then walked down the long hallway. Once she was out of sight, Luna sighed and exited the room as well, and began to head for her observation tower. Once there, she looked up at the dark expanses of the galaxy, hoping to catch a glimpse of Adam’s friends. When she did not detect anything, she sighed in sorrow, and entered the dreamscape. 




Adam bolted down a long corridor, a pack of spiker-wielding brutes chasing close behind him. Occasionally, one of the deadly projectiles would whiz past his head, and impale itself into the end of the hallway. Every few moments, Adam would turn his silenced SMG around and fire behind him, hoping to hit one of the brutes. It had only worked once so far, which lessened the number of brutes chasing him from four to three. Three brutes was still more than anybody wanted chasing them, so Adam continued to fire. Finally he reached the end of the hallway, and the door slid open for him. It opened out into the burning streets of New Mombasa, which were being glassed by a newly arrived Covenant fleet. The superhot beams of plasma fired from the underbellies of the massive battlecruisers, burning permanent scars into the Earth, and turning the surrounding areas into plains of glass. Adam dodged around the burning chassis of cars, the brutes still following him in their never-ending chase. 

The then-ODST was distracted from his evasion when something large whizzed past him. It was too large to be a brute spiker projectile, but too small to be one of the green drone creatures. It spun around, and Adam was surprised to see a sentinel staring right back at him. Several more came out of nowhere and formed up next to the first one, all of them converging on Adam. He turned around to look at his pursuers, and found that they were no longer brutes, but were rather crossbow-wielding griffons. Adam raised his SMG, but found that the clip was dry. He felt around his pouches for more ammo, but found none. The griffons and sentinels began converging on him, and he felt himself being picked up from behind. He was spun around, and was staring face-to-face with one of the griffons. He blinked quickly, and when his eyes reopened, the landscape had changed from the massive metropolis to the grandiose architecture of Canterlot. The one thing that had not changed, however, was the burning. That, and the smell. The smell of dead bodies permeated the air, and Adam noticed several pony corpses lying around the city. To his horror, six of them were Twilight and her friends. The griffon then threw him down, onto his back, and a sentinel flew overhead. It pointed its beam weapon down at him, before there was a bright flash of light, and very briefly Adam saw the face of Princess Luna. Then there was nothing.




Adam jolted up in his bed, sweat covering his face and dripping down his nose. He sat up, and cupped his head in his hands. And, just as he did a little over a week before, he felt another presence staring at him.

“Well that was… different… than your previous ones,” Princess Luna said from the corner. She once again stepped forward, and stood next to him at the edge of his bed. Adam paused for a moment.

“I’ve had that dream before,” he said, drawing a confused stare from Luna. “I mean the original, where the brutes catch up to me and they kill me… But this…” He then paused, choosing his words wisely.

“I couldn’t save them,” he finally said. “My fellow soldiers, the few civilians who were left in the city… I couldn’t save them.” Luna wrapped her large wing around the Spartan as best she could.

“Adam, you did what you could,” she said, smiling. “And you lived to fight another day. No matter how you feel, you still contributed to the downfall of the Covenant.” Adam smiled.

“And you shall contribute to saving Equestria as well, I know it,” she added. Luna then stood up, and walked to the edge of the room.

“I shall leave you to continue sleeping,” she said. “Good night, Adam.”

“Good night,” Adam replied before the princess teleported out. He then lay back in his bed, closed his eyes, and resumed his sleep.




Adam walked quickly down the hallway of the Canterlot palace, both princesses on either side of him. Today he was planning on leaving for the wreckage of Lightning, to restock on supplies and grab some extra gear. All in all, he expected the trip to take no longer than five hours, but that was still five hours that Equestria would be without his tactical expertise. Should the griffons choose to attack while he was away, they could take heavy losses. 

“Please, Adam, you won’t feel a thing!” Luna pleaded.

“I said already, no!” Adam replied, growing annoyed. The two princesses had been trying to convince him to let them teleport him to Lightning, to make his trip much quicker. He still didn’t like the prospect of being dematerialized, and then sent hundreds of thousands of miles away before being rematerialized, so for that reason he was continuing to refuse.  Finally they exited the palace and entered the gardens, and Adam boarded his pelican.

“Well then at least hurry back,” Celestia said, her annoyance showing. Adam nodded and entered the cockpit, then strapped himself in, and took off for the moon.




Commander Lasky watched a screen on the Infinity’s bridge, watching the slipspace timer continue to go down. It had just recently hit the 15 hour mark, meaning that their trip was more than halfway complete. The crew had begun to prepare a frigate, the Perseus, to escort the diplomats down to the surface. The Commander had been assured that it would be ready the second that they exited slipspace. With nothing to do at the moment, Lasky’s mind began to wander to the situation on Equis. Spartans were usually respectable, reliable soldiers. This meant that, most likely, he had initiated peaceful contact. Of course, no Spartan was without at least a few flaws. Lasky could only hope that their diplomatic mission wouldn’t turn into an evac one. He turned around and looked out of the main viewport at the strange view of slipspace in front of them. He had always found the view oddly relaxing. The way that the colors blended soothed him, and helped to take his mind off things. Unfortunately, it seemed that the view was not having its calming effect today. This mission was too important, and he had to focus.

“Commander?” said a voice from behind him. He turned, and saw a young crewman standing by the holotable. 

“Yes?” Lasky replied.

“The captain needs you in his ready room, sir,” the crewman said. Lasky nodded and exited the bridge, walking back down the hallway. He stopped halfway down and turned to face the door to Del Rio’s ready room. He pressed the buzzer, and then stood back.

“Come in!” Del Rio yelled from inside. Lasky opened the door and stepped in, taking in the sights around him. On a large screen across from the captain’s desk was an image of Equis, with various bits of information scrolling by. Del Rio sat at his desk, watching intently. Lasky stepped up to the desk.

“You requested my presence, sir?” he said.

“Yes, commander,” the captain replied. “I called you here to inform you that I would like you to personally take command of Perseus, and go down to Equestria.” Lasky paused, thinking the situation over.

“If I may, sir… Why me?” Lasky asked, confused.

“Thomas,” Del Rio said, standing up. “We both know that you are better with other people than I am. I don’t want to compromise the situation, so I am entrusting the sanctity of this mission to you.” Lasky didn’t know what to say. The mission had already been overwhelming, and now he was going to lead it? He didn’t know if he could do it. But for the sake of humanity, he would try.

“Thank you, sir,” Lasky said, saluting. Del Rio nodded.

“Dismissed, Commander,” he said. Lasky turned on his heels and walked out of the room, heading back to the bridge.




Adam wandered through Lightning’s sizeable armory, stuffing several duffle bags full of ammo and weapons. So far he had four bags, three of which contained rounds for assault rifles, battle rifles, SMG’s, and magnums, with the last one holding more weapons for him to choose from. He also had grabbed a rocket launcher and picked up several extra rockets for it, just in case. Adam zipped up the last duffle bag, and put it over his shoulder. The combined weight of all of the equipment weighed him down quite a bit, but he was still able to carry it back to the pelican with no problem. He dropped them in the back compartment, then checked his chrono. The trip to Lightning had taken longer than Adam anticipated, for the IFF signal was growing weaker by the day. Whereas on the first trip he had found it after a few scans, this time he had had to fly around the moon quite a bit before he picked it up. This had set him back about two hours, so he hoped that nothing was going wrong in Equestria yet. Adam closed the back hatch of the pelican and entered the cockpit, strapping himself in. The engines spun up, and he exited the hangar, flying back towards Equis. As he flew, Celestia’s sun began to crest the horizon, shining light down upon the land below him. Equis’s current position did not show him the large supercontinent, but rather showed him the pale blue ocean that reminded him very much of Earth. Dotting the ocean were a few small islands, and Adam briefly wondered if they harbored any more kinds of life. Equis had already shown itself to hold many different types of creatures, who, until recently, had all been living in harmony together. And now, because of his intervention, a war was starting. Based on how the griffons had been behaving even before his arrival, war seemed inevitable. But because he had acted rashly, and had attacked their ruins, now 401 Lamenting Chorus was employing their help to destroy the ponies. No matter what the princesses told him, he knew it was his fault. And now it was his task – no, his duty – to help them get through it, no matter the cost…